Foley's family releases final email sent by IS
An online news publication that employed the murdered US journalist James Foley has published the full text of the email to his family from his Islamist militant captors in which they said they would kill him in retaliation for US air strikes.
Boston-based GlobalPost said on Thursday that the Foley family had agreed to release the email, which it received from Islamic State a week before the video of his killing was released on Tuesday.
The publication said it chose “to publish it in full in the interest of transparency and to fully tell Jim's story. We believe the text offers insight into the motivations and tactics of the Islamic State”.
Foley was beheaded by the group in an act shown in a video released in which Isis demanded the US to end its air strikes in Iraq.
The email addressed as “a message to the American government and their sheep like citizens”, said: “You were given many chances to negotiate the release of your people via cash transactions as other governments have accepted.”
The group added that it also offered prisoner exchanges for “Muslims currently in your detention.” Instead, the note added, “now you return to bomb the Muslims of Iraq once again, this time resorting to Arial attacks and 'proxy armies', all the while cowardly shying away from a face-to-face confrontation!”
Asserting that the United States did not spare women, children or the elderly, the group added: “We will NOT spare yours!” The email ended with a declaration that Foley “will be executed as a DIRECT result of your transgressions towards us!”
Highlighting what it called inaccuracies in the email, GlobalPost said the Foley family “was not 'given many chances to negotiate' for Jim's release”.
Comments